4 ms·

Researchers create a Maxwell’s demon with a single electron

33 points by sizzle 12y ago

pervycreeper 12y ago
>Researchers create Maxwell’s demon with a single electron. Edit: note the lack of indefinite article.
flatline 12y ago
What a well-written article - good lay description of the problem and the results, doesn't go off the deep end with wild speculation of technical jargon which may or may not be entirely accurate. I'm not terribly surprised by the results - if you stop to think about it the demon in the original experiment is potentially expending quite a bit of work to observe the gas molecules and open and close the gate.
- daveloyall 12y ago
  I agree for the most part, but it would have been nice for the article to mention how much energy it takes to flip a bit, and whether or not that value varies in different circumstances. A flipped bit can mean the difference between tons of snow falling down a mountainside or staying where it is. (Down force greater than stuck force? OK, avalanche!) Does that bit cost the same energy as the one described in the article? If so, I deeply care how much energy that is!
GregBuchholz 12y ago
Some of my favorite paper's on Maxwell's demon are: http://www2.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist1.pdf http://www2.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist1.... http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist2.pdf http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist2.p... ...and to ease into things, an article by one of the authors: "The Simplest Exorcism of Maxwell's Demon -- No Information Needed" http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/exorcism_phase_vol/exorcism_phase_vol.html http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/exorcism_phase_vol/exo...
leni536 12y ago
Once I saw a presentation where they did something similar but with trapping a single atom with lasers [1]. Basically Szilard's engine is a clever "toy" model for predicting Landauer's principle [2] that they verified. [1] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7388/full/nature10872.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7388/full/nature1... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle

33 points by sizzle 12y ago

>Researchers create Maxwell’s demon with a single electron. Edit: note the lack of indefinite article.

What a well-written article - good lay description of the problem and the results, doesn't go off the deep end with wild speculation of technical jargon which may or may not be entirely accurate. I'm not terribly surprised by the results - if you stop to think about it the demon in the original experiment is potentially expending quite a bit of work to observe the gas molecules and open and close the gate.

daveloyall 12y ago
I agree for the most part, but it would have been nice for the article to mention how much energy it takes to flip a bit, and whether or not that value varies in different circumstances. A flipped bit can mean the difference between tons of snow falling down a mountainside or staying where it is. (Down force greater than stuck force? OK, avalanche!) Does that bit cost the same energy as the one described in the article? If so, I deeply care how much energy that is!

GregBuchholz 12y ago

Some of my favorite paper's on Maxwell's demon are: http://www2.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist1.pdf http://www2.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist1.... http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist2.pdf http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/ExorcistXIV/Exorcist2.p... ...and to ease into things, an article by one of the authors: "The Simplest Exorcism of Maxwell's Demon -- No Information Needed" http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/exorcism_phase_vol/exorcism_phase_vol.html http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/exorcism_phase_vol/exo...

leni536 12y ago

Once I saw a presentation where they did something similar but with trapping a single atom with lasers [1]. Basically Szilard's engine is a clever "toy" model for predicting Landauer's principle [2] that they verified. [1] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7388/full/nature10872.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7388/full/nature1... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle